Violence, settlements, Gaza undermine hope for Mideast peace: UN

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Reuters) - Violence and incitement, settlement expansion and a lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority are undermining hope for Middle East peace, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday, citing a report by the Middle East peace "Quartet".

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the U.N. Security Council on Thursday on an eagerly awaited report by the Quartet of sponsors of the stalled Middle East peace process: the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations.

He said the report was likely to be released on Friday.

"The main objective of this report is not about assigning blame," Mladenov told the 15-member council. "It focuses on the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace and offers recommendations on the way forward."

"The Quartet has outlined a reasonable set of steps that if implemented sincerely and resolutely, with support from the international community, could set Israelis and Palestinians on firmly along a navigable course towards establishing a comprehensive peace," he said, without elaborating further.

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014, and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.

A Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom in a settlement in the West Bank on Thursday.

Mladenov said the Quartet report concluded that continuing violence, terrorism and incitement; Israeli settlement expansion and a lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority "severely undermine hope for peace."

"These negative trends can and must be urgently reversed in order to advance be two state solution on ground," he said.

Israel has been expanding housing settlements on land Palestinians seeks for a future state. The United Nations and most countries consider the settlements as illegal.

The Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas is based in the West Bank, while Islamist group Hamas has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

"I hope that based on this report the two parties will engage with the Quartet in order to constructively move the process forward," said Mladenov, adding that he hoped the Security Council would welcome the report once it is released. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Alistair Bell)